Aug 6th	Santa Barbara Homes For Sale with a Good Walk Score!!
2008	Categories: Buyer's Resources & Advice, Green Housing & Living

$100…$120…$140…$160…Who knows where we will be with the price of oil here in the coming future.  One this is for certain, this first 7 months of 2008 has really gotten the attention of everyone when it comes to the increased cost of commodities, oil, gas and overall living.  Changes in lifestyle are happening quickly…and transportation is at or near the top of everyone’s list.

Just in these first 7 months of 2008, the highways have seemed a little more empty, hybrids are more prevalent, bike sales are up and people are starting to reassess where they are living.  This leads me to a great site that I came across that I wanted to share called Walk Score.  Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live and calculates the walk-ability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.  In essence, Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle as opposed to just a car-free lifestyle which most everyone would find very difficult in our culture.  Explore your areas and neighborhood here in the Santa Barbara and Montecito CA areas to see about your walking options.

I have personally noticed a change in attitude of some buyers in the last several months with many looking at homes for sale in Santa Barbara that are closer to downtown or closer to their place of work and have the ability to walk to and from.  I am sure we are not done with this trend and new home owners will start emphasizing a “walk-score” as higher on their lists of priorities when searching for a Santa Barbara home.

Further Reading:

1. Green Living
2. Are $5 Gas Prices Effecting Santa Barbara CA Realtors and/or Their Clients?
3. Santa Barbara Leads the Way in Greenhouse Gas Emission Studies
4. Here is a Method that is Helping Make Santa Barbara More Eco-Friendly
5. How Green is Your Santa Barbara Home…and Realtor?
6. 5 Easy Tips to Free Up Your Time and Vanish Your Junk Mail
7. Santa Barbara Races Ahead on Energy Efficient Real Estate Construction Guidelines

For information on Real Estate here in Santa Barbara, Montecito and/or our surrounding areas, as well as any other aspects of life in our area, please don’t hesitate to contact Kevin Schmidtchen at Sotheby’s Int’l Realty.

Thank you for reading.  I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

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Tags: santa barbara home, santa barbara homes for sale, santa barbara real estate, walk montecito ca, walk santa barbara ca, walking in montecito ca, walking in santa barbara ca

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Buyer's Resources & Advice, Green Housing & Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Duncan said at August 11th, 2008 at 6:50 am

   Kevin: I found the Walk Score on your blog – I tried it for my house
   in Carpinteria that’s going on the market this week, and scored a
   Somewhat Walkable 66. Like they say on the site, their algorithm
   doesn’t take into account everything and is at the mercy of Google
   Map’s API, especially as everything I need is within 10 minute’s
   walk, including the beach!

   Great app though. Thanks for pointing it out.

   - Duncan

   Thanks for the comment Duncan and good luck with your home.

   Kevin

2. Upstart Agent said at August 14th, 2008 at 11:37 am

   That sounds really neat – I am curious what the “walk score” of a few neighborhoods would be where I live. Much of the area is a good 10 minute drive for anything. My old apartment I used to have was within walking distance to a store, bank, and post office – I really miss that place sometimes!

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